Psychopomp is a Dungeon Crawling Action-Adventure PC game released in 2024 by Fading Club. The game has a simple premise: every government building has a labyrinth underneath it, and your none-too-stable Conspiracy Theorist protagonist is going to explore all of them with nothing more than a hammer and the cover of night.
Well...OK, there's more to it than that.
Your protagonist, introduced as clearly suffering a nervous breakdown, has had enough of people keeping their secret powers from her. Thus, she constructs the Machine that Lets Me Read People's Thoughts When I Want To, or "Psychopomp" for short. While the helmet doesn't let her read minds, it does something far more important - it reveals the part of the world deliberately hidden from her, a world filled with monsters and other strange creatures, a world where every government building has an underground labyrinth. Determined to see what else has been hidden from her, and why, the protagonist sets off in the dead of night to discover the truth...assuming she hasn't lost her sanity.
Psychopomp provides examples of the following tropes:
- The All-Solving Hammer: Almost literally. The protagonist needs to break into a government building in the dead of night to explore its labryinth? She uses her hammer. Needs to convince some uncooperative NPCs into letting her use a plot-critical switch? She uses her hammer. Acquire a key for a door from an NPC? Hammer.
- Alien Sky:
- The Moon is shown to be bleeding from a particular vantage point in the Children's Hospital labyrinth. This is because it's a part of the Bleeding Earth.
- A bleeding version of the Earth is visible from the Earth the King of Mercury is on, explicitly called the Bleeding Earth by the King of All Dogs.
- Ambiguous Situation:
- Given the protagonist's clearly-broken mental state, much of what is shown and heard in the game - not to mention the plot itself - is real or merely a product of the protagonist's delusions. Though it takes a bit of sifting through official information scattered through Steam and the official Fading Club Twitter and Discord, the basic plot is very real, the labrynths and everything in them are real, and the protagonist really did ascend into godhood as C'venash Vishneri, the Queen of Venus.
- Which Earth is the main player protagonist from? Is she from the same Earth as the King of Mercury? Or is she from the Bleeding Earth, which would make her the "terrible threat" the King of All Dogs tells the King of Mercury about?
- Apathetic Citizens: Implied, given it's The Conspiracy, not the general populace, who were preventing the protagonist from seeing the world as it truly is, and yet no-one sees fit to stop the murder of dissenting children at schools or hospitals from literally feeding off its patients to keep their rich and famous clients alive forever.
- Big Bad: Collectively, The Conspiracy controlling the world of the Bleeding Earth, which oppresses and kills adults and children alike to benefit the rich and powerful, is the main enemy of the protagonist, who is the Queen of Venus they are trying to keep dormant to use her body for their plans.
- Blood from the Mouth: The protagonist, as shown by the Expressive Health Bar, increasingly bleeds more and more from the mouth as her health drops.
- Cigarette of Anxiety: The protagonist smokes one in the opening as she suffers her nervous breakdown.
- Crapsack World: Schools are nothing more than factories which force-feed children whatever knowledge the government wants them to know, with any disidents turned into raw material for said factories, and hospitals serve no real purpose other than ensuring the rich and famous live forever by literally feeding off others and turning people into giant parasites. The worst part? The public is implied to know all this and don't care.
- The Conspiracy: The protagonist built the Psychopomp because she believes she was the target of one by everyone, and wanted to read their minds to see what they were hiding. It's implied that her world's reality was specifically hidden from her and her alone by an actual conspiracy to prevent her powers as the Queen of Venus from awakening. The epilogue also confirms all knowledge regarding a twin Earth, along with the the true nature of the stellar phenomenon known as the Caldman Four, is being suppressed in order to maintain the conspiracy - as well as to allow the conspirators to hide in plain sight.
- Conspiracy Theorist: As shown through various loading screen 'tips' labeled "Real-World Tips" as well as in-game monologues, the protagonist clearly believes in some bizarre things, such as the backside of all government schools being required to have 30 rows of teeth sourced from kaiju. It doesn't help there's an actual conspiracy against her to prevent her from accessing her full power as the Queen of Venus.
- Covers Always Lie: The official cover art on Steam (and this very article) shows the player protagonist as far more composed and contemplative than she ever is in-game. Thankfully, the game's screenshots and trailer are accurate to how she really is.
- Cryptic Conversation: You get to listen in on one via a call between two conspirators in a transient location, with the speakers represented as eyes. You're only able to witness this call because their line is unsecured.
- Deity of Human Origin: The main protagonist is actually the Queen of Venus, and her powers awaken at the end of the game. The Playable Epilogue's protagonist is implied to be this as well, given the King of Mercury, in both description and symbology, has been associated with the Queen all game, and given the epilogue's protagonist is male.
- "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: The game's creator sings the post-credits version of the title theme.
- Electronic Telepathy: The intended purpose of the Psychopomp. Subverted in that the helmet instead lets the protagonist see the world's true nature. The protagonist is implied to get actual telepathy once her powers as the Queen of Venus awaken at the Center of the Earth.
- Entertainingly Wrong: The protagonist's journey begins because she believes everyone has special powers. In reality, only a select few have special powers. The protagonist, along with the members of The Conspiracy, just so happens to be one of them - and said powers are deliberately being suppressed by the conspirators until the end of the game, by which point the protagonist is beyond their control.
- Evolving Title Screen: In a minor example, once the game is beaten, whenever you're at the title screen, the protagonist will sing along to the title song.
- Expressive Health Bar: In addition to a traditional health bar and an exact listing of your HP in your inventory, the protagonist's portrait is used to visualize your current health. Notably, if your health gets too low, the protagonist stops smiling.
- Foreshadowing:
- A mural of a humanoid moth which closely resembles the protagonist is seen in a temple hidden off the main path in the Waste Management's labyrinth. The protagonist becomes such a being at the game's end.
- A hidden note in the Waste Management labyrinth documents a researcher's frustration at their superior's refusal to even acknowledge her findings that there is a second Earth orbiting nearby. As it happens, the Playable Epilogue takes place on this second Earth.
- Futureshadowing: An automated PSA found in the "Dad's Bad Place" transient location describes a giant, human-like flying insect which can read your thoughts emerging from the earth at dawn, which exactly describes the protagonist after her powers as the Queen of Venus awaken.
- Heroic BSoD: The protagonist having one, spurred by the obsessive belief that everyone is hiding their secret powers from her, kicks off the events of the game.
- Hidden Elf Village: One of the transient locations is the local Thrait village, where the inhabitants live in wooden and cloth tents within the confines of what appears to be a sewer.
- Is This Thing Still On?: At the end of the Cryptic Conversation in the transient location, one of the speakers realizes their line of communication may be unsecure and asks the other speaker. The other speakers replies it doesn't matter.
- Last Episode, New Character: The Playable Epilogue has you briefly play as the King of Mercury, who has a Psychopomp-like device of his own.
- Ludicrous Gibs: Everyone you can kill with the protagonist's hammer explodes into bloody gibs when killed. This even extends to false walls when destroyed.
- Mad Eye: More like Mad Eyes, the protagonist's irises are, effectively, frozen at a huge size compared to the rest of her eye ever since her nervous breakdown. Not helped by the bizarre truths she witnesses thanks to the Psychopomp.
- Never Trust a Trailer: Averted. Unlike the cover art, the trailer accurately showcases the game and its protagonist.
- Non-Indicative Name: The "Machine that Lets Me Read People's Thoughts When I Want To"'s shorthand name, Psychopomp. Not only does "psychopomp" have nothing to do with telepathy, but it doesn't even work as an acronym since the helmet's full name doesn't contain all the letters required to spell "psychopomp"!
- No Name Given: The game never gives you the main protagonist's or the Playable Epilogue's protagonist's names - unless if you do enough out-of-game research. Based on an official hint
, it turns out the document that's out in the open in the Children's Hospital labyrinth which discusses the discovery of C'venesh Vishneri, the Queen of Venus, and Crusnr Colven, the King of Mercury, is actually about the main player protagonist and the Playable Epilogue's protagonist, respectively. - One-Hit-Point Wonder: All non-hostile NPCs and secret walls explode into Ludicrous Gibs when struck by the protagonist's hammer. Actual enemies require multiple hits.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When the protagonist's portrait loses her constant smile, that's your cue to find and use a health syringe before you die.
- Perpetual Smiler: Once she puts on the Psychopomp, the protagonist only ever stops smiling when she's down to her final hitpoint.
- Playable Epilogue: If you load your save after you've completed the game, you gain access to a forbidden location (a library) that reveals the existence of the Caldman Four space phenomenon, as well as brief segment where you play as the King of Mercury, who's on the other Earth alluded to in a secret note.
- Sanity Slippage: The protagonist's Heroic BSoD at the game's beginning, combined by the revelations provided by the Psychopomp and her natural Conspiracy Theorist nature, have clearly eroded her sanity, as demonstrated by the strange monologues and 'Real-World Tips' she gives.
- Schmuck Bait: One of the sentient meat chunks in the Waste Management labyrinth is keeping watch over a key, and if you talk to her, she says she'll explode if someone takes it. She isn't kidding - she'll literally explode if you take the key without killing her first, with the blast either killing you or, if you have full health, bringing you down to your final hitpoint.
- Title Drop: The shorthand for the protagonist's helmet, Psychopomp. Also doubles as Non-Indicative Name.
- Transformation Sequence: The protagonist sprouts moth wings when her powers as the Queen of Venus awaken.
- The Unmasqued World: One of the main protagonist's goals upon awakening her powers as the Queen of Venus. What this masquerade is remains unknown to the player.
- Video Game Cruelty Potential: The player can kill any peaceful NPCs at will, from the little girl in the game's tutorial level to the peaceful Thrait scattered throughout the game.
- Violence is the Only Option: Killing is almost always the only way to progress the plot. Whether it's because the plot-relevant characters explicitly request it, an NPC has a key you need, or simply because the plot-relevant characters in question are rich and famous assholes being kept alive through nonconsensually draining the life out of those lesser than them, violence truly is the only option. The only subversions are at the Center of the Earth, where the player character, as part of her powers as the Queen of Venus awakening, sprouts the life-seed found there, ending the game, and during the Playable Epilogue, where all progression can only be achieved non-violently.
